Page 51 of Overstaying His Welcome

“Losing my mom was hard. It didn’t feel real at first, you know?” Tank didn’t wait for us to answer before continuing. “All my focus went into getting revenge for her. I had to craft the perfect murder so I wouldn’t get caught. Then after it was done, I was just kind of floating along. My grief took over, making me ignore everyone and everything around me. It’s why I didn’t even realize the first set of parents were pieces of shit.”

“That’s fair,” Memphis said softly.

“Yeah. I can attest to being blindsided by things. Life doesn’t always go how we think it would.” Arick’s words had the rest of us nodding along.

“The other kids that were there — do any of them stick out in your mind at all?” Tank tilted his head my way at the question.

I couldn’t explain why I felt the need to keep pressing this one part of the story. Call it my intuition. Or maybe it was just the only thing so far that seemed to be gray enough to lead us to some kind of answer.

“We can look into the foster parents to see who all they’d had in their care back then. Maybe seeing them will jog your memory or something?”

At Arick’s suggestion, Memphis went to work on his laptop. It was interesting to see the level of focus the man had. I admired him for it in some ways.

Arick also appeared to be digging up information, though he wasn’t nearly as harried. The calm surrounding him spoke to the difference in the two men’s personalities.

Tank and I sat quietly as they worked. Not because we thought we’d interrupt them by speaking, or at least that was my reasoning. I think it was more because there wasn’t anything else to say at the moment.

My gaze stayed on Tank as he settled deeper into the bed. His muscles relaxed bit by bit, as if the sound of the keyboards were lulling him into a state of rest.

When his eyes finally closed, I felt as if I could finally breathe easy. Being on alert for his every move was taxing. I loved him and would do anything for him. This was just another challenge in the life we were building together.

“Psssttttt.” I made the noise softly to get the guys’ attention. They looked up in a freaky twin robot kind of way. I bit back a laugh as I pointed to Tank and then the door.

Nodding, they lifted their devices and followed me out of the room. I wanted to stay with him while he slept, but I felt like there was more for me to do. If Tank couldn’t have his eyes on this process, then I needed to step in for him.

“Do you think he’ll be ok in there alone?” I asked no one in particular as we stepped back into the main room.

To my surprise, Damari spoke up first. “I can sit with him. It’s not as if I’m going to be digging into the depths of the case with you guys anyway.”

Ronan pulled his partner into his arms. “Get some rest while you’re in there. And get with Jared to order food if either of you gets hungry. We’re right down the hall if an emergency comes up.”

Damari flushed under the watchful gaze. “Yes, sir. I’ll be fine.”

They shared a quick kiss, then Damari was gone. I shouted, “Thank you!” to his retreating form. He grinned over his shoulder as if to say I was welcome before disappearing around the corner.

“Update us,” Ronan demanded, though his tone wasn’t as hard as I suspected it could be.

Memphis dropped his laptop on the table, then leaned forward, palms flat on either side of the device.

“We don’t have much. From what he said, there isn’t anyone out there who would want to hurt him from back then. Aside from people he might have met on the street, I’m not sure who else could be involved.”

I stepped forward, drawing everyone’s attention. “While I agree with Memphis, there’s one thing he said that’s worth checking out.”

“Chance is right,” Arick added. “Tank mentioned he had some foster siblings during his time in the last home. There might be someone there who is involved.”

“Or it could be someone who knows one of those people.” Godric threw out the suggestion, stealing the words from my mouth.

Cohen didn’t sound as convinced when he said, “Why would someone who knew him back then want to hurt him now? That’s a long game approach.”

“Why do bad people do anything they do? Sometimes they just want to.” Archie’s assessment was far too intuitive for someone his age.

Looking around the room, I marveled at how varied the group before me was. There was no single age group or ethnicity represented here. It was a blended family I felt honored to be part of.

“I think we should check every possible connection,” I told them. “Anything we think could maybe relate to this gets looked over. I’d rather take the time to rule it out than to assume and later feel stupid or be caught off guard.”

Everyone seemed to agree with me, though some a bit more reluctantly. I hoped Cohen got past whatever it was that bothered him. It would be good if we were all on the same page.

A divided crew would fail every time.

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